by Jeff Vidler
In his latest guest column, Jeff Vidler contemplates U.S. ad spend on podcasting has nearly doubled every two years since 2015. Listeners are receptive. The blend of advertisers is changing, and so are ad types. The highly successful host-read ad is difficult to scale. As podcasting steers toward programmatic, Jeff examines new formats and campaign types. Continue Reading
In a widely cited article, The Verge reported that Spotify shut down its in-house founding podcast studio, internally called Studio 4 and publicly named Spotify Studios. While there is no reported connection, we observe that ending Studio 4 comes less than a month folloing the opening of Pod City, Spotify’s plush and elaborate podcast production facility in downtown L.A. Continue Reading
PRX has evidently been busy making deals, and today released three of them. The public media organization is partnering with Magnificent Noise, WaitWhat, and Skeptoid Media to distribute selected podcasts, and provide sponsorship and promotional support. Click for details. Continue Reading
Audioboom released its 2021 annual finance report this morning, containing ready-made headlines for promoting the company’s recent success. Click through for lots of numbers and 2022 forecasts. Continue Reading
The Jordan Harbinger Show joined Podtrac’s monthly Top 20 Podcasts ranker for December. The other 19 shows all appeared in the previous month. RAIN’s 6-month comparison illustrates the nearly-unchanging stability of this list. Continue Reading
In a just-released set of survey results from podcast consulting service Improve Podcast, longevity and detailed preparation lead to better podcast monetization. The survey queried over a thousand podcasters on basic show metrics and income. Continue Reading
In a very interesting set of benchmarks, podcast ad marketplace AdvertiseCast (a subsidiary of Libsyn) released its internal CPM numbers. The metrics include average cost-per-thousand podcast ad impressions for 30-second and 60-second sponsorships, as well as rates for podcasts with different numbers of listeners. Click for two-year trendlines for podcasts addressing different audience sizes. Continue Reading
Only 6,868 new podcasts were launched in December, a 13-month low point. That marker continued a four-month slide as new-show production diminished toward the end of 2021. However, 2021 as a whole produced the second-highest number of new podcasts in 12 years (over 687,000 of them). Click for charts. Continue Reading
The Podscape, a graphic representation of the podcast business landscape created by Magellan AI and Sounds Profitable, has been revised, again. The revision brings the detailed and useful infographic do date with podcast industry acquisitions made since the previous version. Continue Reading
Video/audio podcast production platform Riverside has announced a video-clip-building feature. It’s a clever move for a podcast creation platform which is already distinguished by its fluency in video. Continue Reading
BBC Sounds, the listening app launched in June, 2018, released listening growth metrics for 2021. Overall listening was up 8% from last year, while podcast listening grew 25%. Altogether, 1.3-billion plays were initiated in the app. The organization’s announcement identifies three main content types. Continue Reading
UK-based radio group and worldwide media company Global has acquired podcast hosting/tech outfit Captivate. Global is the developer and holding company of DAX, the company’s international digital audio advertising exchange. Captivate will become part of Global Player, and will take advantage of DAX’s immense reach for monetization opportunities. Continue Reading